Product Media

Product Description

Do you know what your God-given talents are? Do you understand how to use them? Inviting you on a journey of discovery, Cavanaugh encourages you to leave behind the false self-images of your childhood, recognize the gifts you possess, and use your abilities to bless and care for your family and friends. Includes discussion guide. 256 pages, softcover from Tyndale.

Product Information

Publisher's Description

Most people have no idea who they were created to be, nor what their own unique gifts and talents are. So how can we recognize and affirm these things in othersespecially if we were not encouraged ourselves as we were growing up? How can we change course and learn a language of blessing that will lead to positive change in all of our key personal and professional relationships? In The Language of Blessing, Joe Cavanaugh gives us practical tools to recognize our own gifts and those of others and to use our newfound language to bless the ones we care about, breaking a destructive generational cycle and setting a new course for our loved ones futures.

The Language of Blessing is a book that helps you discover what gifts and talents that God has given to you as well as how to use them to bless others. The author speaks of the importance of speaking in a way that blesses others and helping others discover/develop the talents that each person has. After each chapter, there are questions designed to make you think about the chapter's topic in a more personal level. I also liked the practical advice the author gives in his book to help the readers learn more about their own strengths, gifts, and talents and how you can use them to bless others. I also liked the resources in the back of the book because the resources tell you where you can go to find out more information about discovering your purpose and gifting.

The Language of Blessing by Jim Cavanaugh is the latest book I've received from Tyndale for reviewing.

The book starts off somewhat with the teaching from The Blessing by John Trent and Gary Smalley, but mixed together with the author's experiences, including as a life coach and working with a ministry related to relationship recovery.

It then goes into some of the things that can make this difficult, and the importance of learning your own strengths in the process. The book then finishes with some practical application chapters on how to learn to bless others.

This book came into my hands at a very interesting time... pretty much right as our church was ending an extended study of the blessing, and right about the time I was working through some of my own issues that had surfaced. So that may skew my perspective on things a bit.

The first and third parts of the book were pretty much what I had expected them to be.

The first was good at breaking things down and putting them in a way that made them understandable, and helpful at seeing examples of not only what the blessing looks like, but also honest at showing times when it didn't happen.

The last section gives good guidance on how to actually make it happen, including some addressed particularly to parents.

The middle section of the book is pretty close to what the description of book says, that it's a book about the importance of identifying your strengths and how to use them to bless others.

It goes into some depth about the difficulties caused by not realizing your own gifts and talents, because if you just see them as average, you expect everyone else to have them to that degree as well and may judge them accordingly.

To me, this was a new and interesting way of looking at things. And the author does tie in some as to how this effects being able to bless others and why this can create a situation of a child not being blessed because his parent expects them to have the same gifts to the same degree of the parent does rather than appreciating the child's gifts on their own.

But at times it almost seems like an entirely different book than the other two sections. Again, my viewpoint is probably a bit skewed on this from recently being through a series that connected more to the other two sections, and also probably because I was thinking more from a barriers to it being received perspective than from the barriers to giving. But I guess it just didn't connect together with me as well as I had expected, and for some parts seemed like a divided tangent more than it fit in with the section title of barriers to blessing. Still good material, just sort of different from the rest.

Either way, it's a good book, and makes for a good followup for those already familiar with the blessing, but also explains well to cover those that aren't as familiar.

Everyone is unique and different and blessed with a different personality and strengths. We were created for a purpose. We have a chance to recognize the gifts our children have been given and speak into their lives, affirming their calling and purpose.

"Blessings are prophetic in that they communicate the heart, mind and will of God for an individual. They connect us with our Creator's dream for us. Words of blessing confirm and empower God-given intrinsic attributes, such as personality, gifting, talents, character traits, and intelligences.

While I agreed with and appreciated the whole book, I was especially challenged by the third section where the author talks about cultivating a nonanxious presence. They are able to more easily study those around them and listen intentionally because they are not full of their own insecurities and agendas. What a great thing it is to listen and "hear" because you are free of your own insecurities and agendas.

A great resource for every parent!

I received a copy of this book from Tyndale House Publishers in exchange for an honest review. My opinion is my own. Thank you Tyndale House.